Any Engineer can be a Writer

One of the least favorite thing for an Engineer to do is write….documentation, papers, pretty much anything. For some reason, I was never that way — I always enjoy writing. I’m no Hemingway or anything, but I have been known to be able to get ideas and information down on paper in such a way that other people can read it and actually understand what I have written.

When I started out, I really sucked at it. But I kept at it. At the time I was writing “how to” articles on CompuServ where I was a Forum Admin (maybe an article for another time) and one of the regulars on that forum happened to be an editor for a national computer magazine. He asked if I would be interested in writing reviews of software (‘C’ compilers was the first review….which was fun since I didn’t even program in ‘C’.) I got the first editor’s review back with the comment “Where did you learn to write? In a Barn?” Suffice to say that it took a few iterations and revisions before the editor was happy. The next few articles were not so bad. And I kept at it.

Many published articles and one chapter in a published book later, I’m still writing. Not as much as I used to BK (IE> Before Kids), but now that I’m KiHaLeHo (IE> Kids Have Left Home), I’m starting to get back into the swing of things.

I was talking with one of my Engineer buddies last week, and while talking about a technical topic, I mentioned to him that he should really write up a blog post or article about what he knew. His comment to me was “I’m a Programmer not a Writer!” …Which is actually kind of sad. There are lots and lots of Engineers out there who know a ton about how to get stuff done, but are either unwilling or afraid to try and write it all down.

So to help with that, here are some steps to help you get writing and get published!

1. Write….Just Write The only way you are every going to feel comfortable writing is to just do it (to quote a famous shoe company.) Take some time out of every day, and write. It really doesn’t matter what you write about, or how much time to take to write, but you have to get into the practice of writing and finding your “voice” as a lot of writing teachers would tell you. What do you feel comfortable with? What helps you get ideas and thoughts down on paper?
2. You don’t have to Start at the Beginning When I started writing, I would sit down and try to think of how to start my article/blog/whatever. A lot of times that would lead me to not actually write anything, because I could not come up with a good way to start. Another writer clued me into how she never started with the intro or the ending, but always started in the middle. That really helped me a lot as I knew what I wanted to say, just not how to start it. So now, a lot of times I will start “in the middle” and come back to write the intro AFTER I have gotten my ideas down on paper. Take this article for instance: I started with this list, THEN went back to write the paragraphs before this list. BTW, this is also a good strategy for writing books — you don’t have to start with Chapter 1.
3. “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” …Well not really, but its a great quote of Hemingway that I always remember (And for the record, I’ve tried that, but found out that I tend to wander too far off topic when I do that.). The point here is this: Write what you are thinking about and get it down on paper. It doesn’t have to make complete sense, all the words don’t have to be spelled correctly, and the sentences don’t have to be complete. Just get your thoughts down, THEN go back and re-read it all and edit what you wrote to make more sense. Now when you do this, don’t be surprised if you end up cutting out half of what you wrote, or end up writing twice as much as you did the first time. Reading it back to yourself will — a lot of the time — make your brain remember or otherwise come up with other points you should be making or not making.
4. It WON’T be Perfect A lot of Engineers that I know of are never really, fully satisfied that the program code they write is complete and perfect. They want to keep “perfecting” the code, and usually cringe at what they have to turn in because they run out of time, and it’s not “perfect”. That same personality quirk can torpedo your writing as well. I know I have it, and always have to take a deep breath when my mouse pointer is hovering over the “Publish” button on my blogs. You just have be confident that what you have written is readable and can somewhat convey the points that you wanted to make. As an added bonus, if you really feel it wasn’t complete enough, you can always come back and write an “updated” or “revised” version!
5. Figure out what your ‘Groove’ is Some writers need absolute silence in order to write. Some writers like to go to the local coffee shop and write there amongst all the hustle, bustle, and whoosh of the espresso machines. I personally do my best writing with music of some kind blaring in the background at 2am in the morning….which doesn’t make me very popular with the Mrs. when I’m writing like that. Minimizing distractions is usually a good way to start. Make sure your editor program window takes up the whole screen — blank out the background. Put on the noise-cancelling headphones and try it…..or add music. It’s going to take a bit, but after awhile, you should easily be able to figure out what setting makes you the most productive writer.
6. You don’t have to Finish it Along with point #2 above, you could end up with a bunch of half-done articles or blog posts that never seem to get finished. Sometimes I get an idea for an article, open a new window and start writing. But coming back to it sometime later, I find that I’m not that enthusiastic about the topic now, and skip it to write about something else. And that’s ok. It was good practice. I easily have 20 – 30 half-done articles on my computer at any one time….some are years old.
7. If your company has a Website, Write something for it …Especially if it is a technical article or blog post. Most company websites are run by marketing people, and are starving for technical content! Once its up on the website, you can always reference it on things like LinkedIn to show off your creds as a Engineer/Writer 😉

Engineers who can write good code, and also write readable articles, are rare and far between. Being able to write can only enhance your career and get you noticed by more people….which is always a good thing!